Recent improvement in computer technology and implementation of sophisticated information terminals have prompted development of input apparatuses which allow users to input information, such as instructions, through motions of their hands and fingers and changes in their postures, without holding apparatuses such as remote controllers and wearing special apparatuses.
Such input apparatuses allow the users to move pointers through movements of their hands and fingers to point to any given object displayed on the screens. These input apparatuses, however, lack a mechanism for reliable operations, such as switches for a remote control and a mouse, and have difficulties in identifying a user's intentional actions including selection and determination of an object.
Hence, as a technique which enables the selection of an object, Patent Literature 1 (PTL 1) discloses a technique to monitor the motion of a pointer indicating an object on a screen, and to determine that the user performs a selection action when the movement locus of the pointer matches a predetermined pattern.
Furthermore, Patent Literature 2 (PTL 2) discloses an interface apparatus which determines that a user performs a selection action when the user makes a predetermined hand and finger gesture which is different from a hand and finger gesture to be made when the user points to the object. In addition, the interface apparatus disclosed in PTL 2 displays, on the screen, views of hand and finger gestures to be used for operations, and determination results of the hand and finger gestures. Hence the user can perform an operation, checking the screen without remembering a predetermined hand and finger gesture.
Moreover, Patent Literature 3 (PTL 3) discloses an information. processing apparatus which displays, on a screen providing an object, an obtained image of a user captured by a camera and a guiding frame for detecting a predetermined pose of the user. Specifically, the information displaying apparatus displays a part of a hand of the user in the obtained image (i) in a red frame when the part is placed within the guiding frame and (ii) in a blue frame when the part is placed outside the guiding frame. This encourages the user to move the part of the hand in the blue frame into the guiding frame, and makes it possible to execute processing corresponding to the guiding frame.